Traffic reporter Tom on right route to love

JUST MARRIED, the latest Hollywood comedy at the Odeon Esher, chronicles the beleaguered romance of Tom (Ashton Kutcher) and Sarah (Brittany Murphy), a young couple unexpectedly swept off their feet after their first meeting.

Tom is a late-night radio traffic reporter whose good looks, blue-collar lifestyle and unrelenting passion for sports makes him the ultimate alpha-male. Sarah is a beautiful, free-spirited writer whose family is as wealthy as it is snobbish.

Following their wedding, they set off on what they expect to be the perfect honeymoon, but thanks to her ex-boyfriend (Christian Kane) and relentless bad luck, the happy couple experience a honeymoon from hell.

Soon they are living out a screwball version of Murphy’s Law and divorce begins to look hilariously ominous.

When Sarah’s old flame shows up at their hotel in Venice to cause further trouble, Tom responds with a jealous outburst that lands the newlyweds in jail.

Tom and Sarah survive their misadventures long enough to face the ultimate test of their marriage vows, when each re-veals a secret that threatens to spoil their relationship entirely.

As Tom, Kutcher is an agreeable oaf whose faults are a matter of being more a man and less a boy. But as Sarah, Murphy makes you want to sit on the bride’s side of the cinema.

With her sweet vulnerability, quaint swearing and girlish exuberance, she radiates the charm of a young Goldie Hawn.

Director Shawn Levy ditches the expected blueprint of ro-mantic comedies of recent years and comes up with a film that is surprisingly original and endearing.

There’s true comedy underneath the outer layer of naive teenhood pretence. Full-on slapstick stands in at times, but the film mostly plays off the emotive humour found in relationships and friendships.

As things crash into Sarah and Tom or explode all around them on their honeymoon, Just Married finds a way to make their torment funny, while also letting them learn more about each other.

We see the bad times in their relationship and, if they can get through them, we know that their marriage will get better and stronger.

The bad times also make this comedy better and stronger.

As we see the couple realising they’re too tired for sex on their wedding night, coping with a French rental car the size of a biscuit tin, or figuring out how to forgive each other, we start to believe these two are in love.

And that is this film’s charm. Just Married is one of those rare romantic comedies that’s actually romantic and comic.